Sony Europe (PSE) wins Frost & Sullivan Product Innovation Award

Sony PSE has been selected for this award based on its commitment to technological innovation and new product development, confirmed with the launch of the industry’s first 1080i videoconferencing solution.

Frost & Sullivan analyst team tracks all launches of new products to choose a recipient of this Award. All new products and those in development are compared and evaluated based on degree of innovation and customer satisfaction. Frost and Sullivan consider this is a very significant new product for the Telepresence and Videoconferencing industry and that Sony’s product innovation is both unique and revolutionary technology.

Sony is in the vanguard of product innovation with the PCS-XG80 system, which is the industry’s first 1080i HD videoconferencing system. Sony’s launch of the PCS-XG80 further strengthens and extends its HD videoconferencing endpoints product line and positions it to take advantage of the growing demand for advanced HD videoconferencing by users.

Frost & Sullivan note that high-end visual communications solutions - like Telepresence - are creating an additional ‘buzz’ in the marketplace, and have helped grow awareness of the capabilities of this next generation of visual communications technologies, in turn promoting demand for and the sale of high-end, high definition VC systems.
 
The PCS-XG80 system combines 1080i resolution and a high frame rate of 60 fields per second to deliver a superb, natural motion video quality which can act as a very realistic an alternative to face-to-face meetings. The system with 1080i represents 1,080 lines of vertical screen resolution, which are scanned alternatively, or interlaced.

The PCS-XG80 deploys fully extensive feature set of PCS-HG90 videoconferencing product, including enhanced intelligent Quality of Service (QoS), and memory stick media support - among others. In addition, the Sony PCX-XG80 supports the following features: 

• The Sony proprietary Bright Face technology, which promises clearer images under even poor–lightening conditions,
• The PCX-XG80 does not require any firewall transversal and has two ports – LAN & WAN to easily bridge between corporate network and public internet facility.
• The PCS-XG80 also complies with the ITU-T H.239 standard, ensuring presentation data can be shared with other locations at a frame rate as high as 30fps, enough to present animations during a videoconference.
• PCS-XG80 users are able to use the ‘Video Annotation’ function with which the user can draw attention to specific part of its image by writing on a tablet device.

The PCS XG80 gives users the option of connecting with HD videoconferencing endpoints over high bandwidth IP connections, or with the existing installed user base of SD (standard definition) systems using either the standard Internet or ISDN networks.

The Award recognises the marvelous HD video technology of Sony and the videoconferencing design team in Japan. One of that team - Akihisa Obara - took over the position of Kees Hoogstraate - European Marketing Manager for Videoconferencing on 1 April 2008.

Kees Hoogstraate has been managing the European videoconferencing business for the last 3.5 years. His flair, enthusiasm and organisational skills, recently backed up by the tremendous value of the Sony SD and HD VC products, have made Sony a much stronger competitor in the European market today.

The Sony PCS-XG80 1080i HD VC system, which helped win the F & S Award for Sony, sells for Euros 7000 complete with a Sony HD camera, a six-site MCU  and stereo support. It is a compelling offer. With it, Sony’s European market share is going to rise further in the future.

Source: www.VCInsight.com